U.S. Panel Grants 2007-2008

U.S. Panel Grants are grants issued to U.S.-based lesbian, trans and LGBTI social change organizations and projects, including cultural and film/video projects. U.S. Panel Grants are determined by a diverse and committed activist Community Funding Panel.

In Fiscal Year 2007-2008, the U.S. Fund Panel issued a total of $377,050 to 48 organizations in 26 towns and cities across 18 states.

NORTHEAST/MID-ATLANTIC

Best Practices Policy Project (Washington, DC) For the work of this national leadership and policy center to build organizational capacity of sex workers’ rights organizations and to strengthen sex workers’ rights movements in the U.S. $2,500 bestpracticespolicy.org

Casa Atabex Aché (New York, NY) For the Healing the Rainbow initiative, fostering sustainable activism, healing and affirming spiritual practices in queer women of color communities. $10,000 casaatabexache.org

Chica Luna Productions (New York, NY) For Pandora, Chica Luna’s multi-media theater production highlighting issues faced by urban, queer Latinas. Pandora premiered June 2008 in New York City and will travel nationally. $8,000 chicaluna.com

Fire and Ink, Inc., (Hyattsville, MD) promotes understanding and visibility of the works of LGBT writers of African descent and heritage. Strategies include gathering writers to exchange skills and information, and educating readers through their literacy project. $10,000 fireandink.org

Himaphiliac CineLabs LLC (New York, NY) For post-production of Loving in the Shadows and the creation of a companion website and digital quilt. The film tells a story of LGBTQI intimate partner abuse by melding narrative experimental form with documentary-style testimonies. $6,000

International Muslim Dialogue Project (New York, NY) For distribution of A Jihad for Love through screening and speaking tours at festivals and cinemas. Filmed in twelve countries and nine languages, the documentary film explores the experiences of gay and lesbian Muslims around the world. $4,000 ajihadforlove.com

Jessica Danser/dansfolk (Bronx, NY) For the creation and performance of new work by Jessica Danser at the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, a contemporary company that creates modern dance rooted in traditional forms with powerful social messages. $3,050

Outright Vermont (Burlington, VT) builds safe, healthy and supportive environments for LGBT, queer and questioning youth. Grant supports Outright Vermont’s growing queer youth empowerment and leadership work, as well as organizing to counter an expected backlash against same sex marriage efforts in Vermont. $6,000 outrightvt.org

Pride at Work/AFL-CIO (Washington, DC) mobilizes support between the organized Labor movement and the LGBT community to achieve social and economic justice. The alliance is instrumental in recruiting Labor to support LGBT rights through non-discrimination policies and domestic partner benefits, promoting an end to civil marriage discriminations, and extending health benefits to transgender people. $6,000 prideatwork.org

Queer Black Cinema (New York, NY), New York’s first and only Black LGBTQ monthly micro-cinema series, is a volunteer-run organization dedicated to showcasing independent narrative and documentary works by emerging U.S. and international Black LGBTQ filmmakers. Grant supports QBC in doubling its showcase frequency. $10,000 queerblackcinema.org

Queers for Economic Justice (New York, NY) For the Welfare Organizing Project, which organizes low-income LGBTI and gender non-conforming people to make changes to the welfare system. Lynn Campbell Memorial Fund. $10,000 q4ej.org

Spectaculum Productions (Brooklyn, NY) For post-production of At Your Cervix, a feature- length documentary offering an in-depth critique of traditional medical and nursing education and its disproportionate impact on poor women, women of color, queer women and trans people. $7,000 atyourcervixmovie.com

Sylvia Rivera Law Project (New York, NY) is a collective organization founded on the understanding that gender self-determination is inextricably intertwined with racial, social and economic justice. SRLP increases the political power of low-income people of color who are transgender, intersex or gender non-conforming through policy and organizing programs. $10,000 srlp.org

MIDWEST

Affinity Community Services (Chicago, IL) For general support. $10,000 affinity95.org

Amigas Latinas (Chicago, IL) is a community organization serving LBTQ Latinas in Chicago. Building on their community needs assessment research, Amigas is implementing a membership education and mobilization plan, which will include a leadership summit to focus on critical issues voiced by its constituency. $10,000 amigaslatinas.org

Equality Cincinnati (Cincinnati, OH) engages in public education to end discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity at work, in schools, in housing or in public accommodations in Cincinnati and the surrounding region. $5,000 equalitycincinnati.org

LGBT Resource Center of the Seven Rivers Region (La Crosse, WI) is based in a primarily rural area of Wisconsin and builds community among, and secures justice for, LGBT people and other oppressed communities. Grant supports expansion of their speakers’ bureau project. $5,000 7riverslgbt.org

Minnesota Transgender Health Coalition (Minneapolis, MN) is a volunteer-run group of trans and allied activists working to improve health care access and quality for transgender, transsexual, intersex, genderqueer and other gender variant people living in Minnesota. $5,000 mntranshealth.org

Moving Train Media and MamSir Productions (Chicago, IL) For the joint project Transfeminism, which highlights trans women participating in and leading campaigns which address issues of racism, poverty, police/state violence, reproductive rights, feminism and gender rights. $8,000

None on Record (Chicago, IL) For the audio documentary series, None on Record: Stories of Queer Africa, which showcases the lives and struggles of LGBT people from the African continent and its diaspora. NEWMR Fund for the Promotion of Women’s Music and Culture. $10,000 noneonrecord.com

Old Lesbians Organizing for Change (Athens, OH) Grant will expand OLOC’s field organizing project and assist low-income and disabled members in attending their national conference. $6,000 oloc.org

Pink Ice Promotions (Southfield, MI) empowers women loving women in the African American community by combining arts and entertainment with cultural awareness. Grant will support their Staller to Scholar project, in a hip-hop lyrics format designed to reach youth communities. $5,000

Two Spirit Press Room (Minneapolis, MN) For this media project’s work to increase mainstream media’s cultural literacy, and to increase media literacy in Indigenous GLBT communities. $10,000 home.earthlink.net/~lafor002

NORTHWEST/MOUNTAIN STATES

Advocates for Informed Choice (Cotati, CA) For their medical education campaign, which increases awareness of the civil rights of children with intersex conditions. $5,000 iiclaw.org

Asian American Queer Women Activists (Los Angeles, CA) For their Visibility Project and leadership development workshops. AAQWA is a network of Asian American queer women in Southern California working to create community, increase visibility and build political power within the API LGBTQ community. $10,000

Basic Rights Education Fund (Portland, OR) For the racial justice organizing of this statewide LGBT advocacy and education organization. Work will include training, education and alliance-building with organizations serving communities of color. $7,000 basicrights.org

COLAGE (San Francisco, CA) is a national organization with local chapters working to break the social isolation and discrimination faced by people with LGBT parents. COLAGE secures respect, dignity and rights for LGBT families through youth empowerment, leadership development, education and advocacy. $4,000 colage.org

Communities Against Rape and Abuse (Seattle, WA) is a community organizing project working to combat sexual violence. Grant will help combat law enforcement violence against women and trans people of color in and outside the prison industry; support survivors; and facilitate community-based alternatives for accountability. $5,000 cara-seattle.org

Community Alliance of Lane County (Eugene, OR) educates and mobilizes local community members to work for peace, human dignity and social, racial and economic justice. Grant supports organizing in schools and neighborhoods to maintain Hate-Free Zones, and to mobilize high school students to fight for LGBT rights in the districts. $8,000 calclane.org

Fresh Meat Productions (San Francisco, CA) builds community by producing and presenting year-round multidisciplinary arts programs that authentically reflect and explore the transgender experience. Grant supports the creation and world premiere of Fresh Meat 2009, a multidisciplinary production that challenges conventional ways of thinking about gender, race and sexual orientation. $8,000 freshmeatproductions.org

Human Dignity Coalition (Bend, OR) For leadership development of LGBT, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, pansexual and allied youth through the Central Oregon Gay Straight Alliance Network. Founded in 1992 in response to anti-gay legislation, HDC is a multi-issue, social justice organization focusing on education, advocacy and grassroots organizing. $4,000 humandignitycoalition.org

Marea Media (San Francisco, CA) For production of the first documentary made about the Thai tom-dee community. This film is a collaboration between Thai academics/activists and U.S.-based filmmakers. $5,000 mareamedia.com

Montana Human Rights Network (Helena, MT) For the development of a multi-year grassroots organizing program for a fully inclusive Human Rights Act that would address discrimination faced by LGBTI and Two Spirit people. $8,000 mhrn.org

Purple Moon Dance Project (San Francisco, CA) increases the visibility of lesbians and women of color and encourages social change, peace and healing through the medium of dance. Grant supports the expansion of their youth-oriented and multi-generational programs, and their artist apprenticeship program. $6,000 purplemoondance.org

Queer Radical Voices (Berkeley, CA) is a collective of LGBTQ radio activists who produce and distribute in-depth radio programs rich in gender, race, class and queer/trans visibility. $7,000

Satrang (Los Angeles, CA) Grant will help fight isolation and build visibility of the South Asian LGBTIQ community in Los Angeles via an educational workshop and a new communications strategy. Satrang recently marked two milestones—a groundbreaking South Asian LGBTIQ needs assessment survey and an historic queer procession in Little India. $10,000 satrang.org

Tenth Muse Productions (San Francisco, CA) For the development, production and promotion of the opera Juana, including building community awareness about the story’s historical relevance to lesbian empowerment, religious freedom and feminism. $6,000

The Dancing Tree (Berkeley, CA) For Sins Invalid, a multi-media program in which artists with disabilities present work that explores and explodes notions of the disabled body, beauty and sexuality using poetry, spoken word, film and dance. $10,000 thedancingtree.org

Transgender Law Center (San Francisco, CA) For the 4th Annual Transgender Leadership Summit (Spring 2009) for transgender activists to build skills and networks, and energize capacity for statewide rights-based actions. $10,000 transgenderlawcenter.org

Triangle Speakers (Santa Cruz, CA) For the Speakers Bureau, a team of over 200 trained volunteer LGBT people and family members who provide workshops and presentations addressing fear and discrimination against LGBT people to K–12 schools, colleges, government and faith-based institutions. $6,000 trianglespeakers.org

Women of Color Resource Center (Oakland, CA) For the production of Do Tell—Untold Stories of Queer Women in the US Military, documenting lesbian and women of color experiences in the military through digital storytelling. The Center works with women of color veterans who are supporting each other in healing from military service and taking leadership in speaking out for peace. Joyce Warshow Fund for the Promotion of Women’s Media Production. $10,000 coloredgirls.org

SOUTH/SOUTHWEST

Center for Artistic Revolution (North Little Rock, AR) combines education and organizing skills with creativity and cultural work to build stronger communities. CAR conducts direct action campaigns and facilitates community exchanges across Arkansas on LGBTQQI issues, immigration and the death penalty. $10,000 artisticrevolution.org

Desiree Alliance (Henderson, NV) creates space for sex workers and allies to present a united front to defend sex workers’ human, labor and civil rights. A coalition of community groups, the Alliance is committed to grassroots leadership representing diverse sex worker communities. Grant supports the attendance of LBT sex workers of color at the 2008 national bi-annual conference of sex workers’ rights organizers in Chicago. $7,000 desireealliance.org

Juneteenth Legacy Theatre (Kentucky/New York) is the longest continuously operating Black theater arts organization in Louisville and the only professional Black theater company in Kentucky. Juneteenth, which expanded to New York City in 2002, empowers artists by producing works about the African American experience—inclusive of LGBT communities. $6,500 juneteenthlegacytheatre.com

Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana (New Orleans, LA) For the GLBTQ Youth Project’s production and distribution of a report on the experiences of incarcerated GLBTQ youth in Louisiana, including recommendations for improving prison conditions. $6,000 jjpl.org

The Pikes Peak Lavender Film Festival (Colorado Springs, CO) For the 9th Annual Film Festival. PPLFF makes international GLBTI films available to audiences in the Rocky Mountain region, home to bastions of the political Right Wing. $4,000 pplff.org

Vox Rising! (Jamestown, CO) is a free alternative school and safe-space feminist theater for youth. Grant supports production of two youth-run multi-media shows. $4,000 voxfeminista.org

Zami (Decatur, GA) empowers lesbians of African descent through advocacy, education, leadership development, scholarship funds and cultural activities. Grant is for general support. $4,000 zami.org